Bows have a chance of being caught by fishing as part of the treasure category. When caught, the bow may be damaged and contain random enchantments equivalent to a level 30 enchantment from an enchantment table.

Bows can be drawn back by using it. In order to use the bow, you must have at least one arrow in your inventory, or be in creative mode. While the bow is being charged or remains fully charged, the player is forced to move at sneaking speed, unless they are riding a horse, minecart or boat at the time, which causes no speed decrease.

Charging the bow to its maximum causes it to visually shake as an indicator, and releases an arrow with a white sparkling effect, signifying a critical hit. At minimum charge (3 ticks), the arrow will deal 1 () and barely travel a block. At full charge (1 second), the arrow travels up to 64 blocks upwards, flies with a speed of roughly 53 m/s, and consistently deals 9 () damage, with a 1/5 of chance of dealing 10 (), making it the most powerful weapon in the game. If the arrow hits another player, it will make a high pitched "ding" sound.

Damage caused by the arrow is unaffected by the Strength status effect.

Endermen cannot be shot using an arrow, as the arrow will either disappear as the enderman teleports, or it will become deflected. An arrow shot from a bow enchanted with Flame I can ignite the enderman, however.

Bows can receive seven different enchantments, and have a base enchantibility of 1. Bow enchantments have no effect on arrow speed or distance.

Power increases the damage by 25% times the level of power plus 1, up to a maximum of level V. A power V bow will deal a maximum of 25 ( × 12.5).

Punch will increase the knock back (+4 blocks per level) applied by the bow, up to a maximum level of II.

Flame will ignite the arrow, causing it to likewise ignite any entities it hits. If not extinguished, the fire damage will do up to 5 (). Flame will also allow the player to ignite TNT from a distance. There is only 1 level of flame.

Infinity allows you to fire the bow without consuming any arrows. A single arrow is still required to fire. Fired arrows shot from an infinity enchanted bow cannot be retrieved if they land on the ground. There is only 1 level of infinity. Tipped arrows will be consumed even with Infinity.

Unbreaking causes a 100 divided by the level of unbreaking plus 1 chance of taking any damage. Unbreaking has a maximum level of III.

Mending allows a certain proportion of XP orbs collected to contribute towards repairing the bow, rather than raising the player's experience. It can only be applied using enchanted books and an anvil.

Mending and Infinity are mutually exclusive.

Curse of Vanishing[Java and Legacy Console editions only] causes the bow to disappear instead of dropping on the ground when the player dies. It can only be applied using enchanted books and an anvil.

As arrows are affected by gravity, they take an arcing path over distances. One must aim above the target when firing from a distance, or gain higher ground, to effectively make a hit. Arrows will slow down if shot through water.

Arrows that hit solid blocks will become stuck and can be recollected, unless the arrow was shot by a bow enchanted with Infinity, a player in creative mode, or a skeleton.

Arrows shot through lava will ignite, similar to the flame enchantment. The arrow will likewise ignite any entities it hits. If not extinguished, the fire damage will do up to 5 ().

The player can choose which type of arrow to fire based on its location in the inventory. Arrows in the off-hand, or the selected hotbar slot if the bow is in the off-hand, are prioritized first. If there are no arrows in the off-hand or selected hotbar slot then the arrow closest to slot 0 is selected.

The player did not need a bow to shoot arrows. Instead, Tab ↹ was used to fire arrows. However, arrows still had to be collected to shoot. Launching arrows this way was much slower than the bow that now fires them.

Added bows. The right mouse button could be held down to fire in rapid succession. Each arrow dealt 4 () for each hit. They would fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water. They would travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also had a maximum range of around 52 blocks when fired at a 38 degree angle on a flat plane.

Bows often failed to interact with objects, but would instead shoot. This was very inconvenient when trying to open doors, chests etc. This was due to the fact that shooting arrows was an instantaneous action.

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